A few weeks ago, we told you about Panasonic’s goal to take on smartphone markets outside of Japan and ultimately reach annual sales of 7.5 million units by 2015. Their first attempt will be in the European markets with a new 4.3-inch OLED smartphone that was just announced. Not many details were given other than it will be an ultra slim, D-shaped device that is water and dust resistant. It seems like if they want consumers to get excited about the device they would at least give us some detailed specs to go along with these mediocre pictures.

According to the press release, ambitions are high and Panasonic hopes to push this phone worldwide and ship 5 million units in the next fiscal year. With all the great devices available these days, Panasonic is really going to have to hit a home run if they don’t want to be disappointed. Take LG for example. Like Pannasonic, they have been quite successful with consumer electronics but have not quite been able to harness the mobile device market just yet. Only time will tell I guess.

As soon as we get some specs (let alone a name) we will let you know more. Join us after the break for the full press release.

Panasonic to Expand Smartphone Business to European Market

Panasonic will expand its mobile phone business into the global market, targeting at nine million units of overseas sales in fiscal year 2016.

Tokyo, Japan – Panasonic announced today that it will expand its smartphone business to the European market in March 2012. At the same time, it announced its aim to bring its overseas smartphone sales to nine million units in fiscal year 2016, ending March 31, 2016, using Europe as a stepping stone to the global market.

With the mobile phone market rapidly shifting to smartphone usage worldwide and a steady growth expected particularly overseas, Panasonic aims to tap into this growth with its first global model smartphone for the European market in March 2012.

Using this as a reference model, Panasonic will expand its lineup, aiming at sales of 1.5 million smartphones in Europe next fiscal year. Furthermore, in fiscal year 2016, Panasonic targets global sales of 15 million units, including nine million in Europe, Asia, China, and the United States and six million in Japan (of which five million are smartphones).

The Panasonic Group created the Systems & Communications Company (SNC) in April this year in advance of its reorganization scheduled for January 2012 in order to handle products and services related to system, network and mobile communications. Within this company, Panasonic will maximize its internal resources, including making use of an existing factory in Malaysia. Currently, phones for the Japanese market are manufactured in this factory but now the same factory is also scheduled to manufacture the first global model as announced.

Panasonic will continue to expand its product lineup and increase sales in a speedy process by thoroughly utilizing the Group's technological assets and development resources as well as its production and sales sites around the world, thereby strengthening development, production, and sales structure and product competitiveness.

Even with releasing their new phones (like the Rezound), HTC is showing some love to their older ones. Multiple users have reported that the Desire HD and Incredible S have both received updates to Android 2.3.5 with Sense 3.0, which puts them right up there with the likes of the Sensation and EVO 3D. Before this update, people were stuck with having to root these devices if they wanted these features. The Wildfire S also received some love. While it did not get bumped to 3.0 (it has Sense 2.1), it did receive the Android 2.3.5 push with the Sense 3.0 lockscreen.

While there is no word if the Incredible 2 will receive this update in the future or not. If you have any of these three phones however, and haven’t received the update just yet, head to Settings>About Phone>Software Updates to see if it’s available. For those that have it, what do you think? Is it amazing?

So you’re coveting that oh-so fast quad-core tablet, but loathe the waiting period before getting your gritty mitts on one? Well kids, you’re one step closer to owning the ASUS Transformer Prime. Clove UK has just announced they’ve begun taking pre-orders of the 32GB and 64GB variations of the attractive tablet for the not-too unreasonable price of £550 including VAT. You can check the link below for more details. I’m sure many of you will.

Those developers at Google are certainly on a roll. They just keep throwing one enhancement after another– and now they come with another cool and nifty feature on deck. They’ve just made it even faster and easier to discover movies, showtimes and theaters– all from your smartphone! When you search for movies or your favorite theater like AMC Loews in New York City on 34th Street on Google.com from your phone, you'll see interactive results for movies in a new swipeable ribbon, with the most relevant information displayed at the top of the page. All of this is developed to help you quickly browse what’s playing in theaters now– no need to wait for a page to load or to use the back button.

To learn more about a movie, it’s a simple process. You tap the movie title to find details like the full summary. You can even view the official trailer and buy tickets directly from your smartphone by tapping on underlined showtimes!

Be sure to give this neat new feature a shot on your Android smartphone. All you do is visit Google.com, search for movies or your local theater and see the cool addition in action!

It ’tis the season to update your avatars and Google knows it. Today they released an update to the popular app Androidify that adds brand new winter gear to the mix. They include candy canes and mittens all the way to 2012 New Years glasses. If you have the app already head over to the Android Market to update otherwise hit the link or QR code below to rock your Android festivity!

In case you were wondering what the new Motorola DROID XYBoard wallpapers look like (because the DROID line always comes up with some snazzy ones), they are now available for your downloading pleasure. A couple of them are repeats but some of the new ones are pretty bitchin’. Hit up the download link below to get the whole shebang or jump past the cut to grab one (or all) of the 5 from the gallery. So.. what are you waiting for? Go get your XYBoard on!

Also, don’t forget that you can get these wallpapers on the actual device they were made for! Today, Verizon started taking XYBoard tablet orders online and will they will be available in-store on Monday, Dec. 12.

Nvidia had themselves a very successful year when it came to Tegra 2 devices. In nearly all tablets and some of the greatest phones of 2011, their Tegra 2 processors brought mobile gaming into the modern age. From a basic viewpoint, Nvidia brought console quality gaming to mobile devices. However, given that competition continously grows, Nvidia needed something cutting edge to stay top dog in the new year. Enter Shadowgun and Tegra 3.

For those of you that live under a rock and don’t know about this fantastic game, it is a Tegra 2 optimized shooter that came out with critical acclaim. One of the best looking games on the market, Shadowgun set the bar high for mobile 3D games everywhere. If you are interested in reading our review on it, I recommend going here. It appears Nvidia looks to set the bar even higher with a Tegra 3 optimized version of the game. As Nvidia puts it:

“The Tegra 3-optimized version of Shadowgun features console-quality water, enhanced rag-doll physics, particle effects, enhanced shaders and dynamic textures. These are only possible using Tegra 3's multi-core capabilities, and they make for a truly immersive and realistic gaming experience.”

If you aren’t convinced, I recommend checking out the video after the break. Right now the only way to experience the new optimizations is to go out and buy the Transformer Prime when it becomes available. Just so you are also aware, Tegra 3 has support for PS3, Wii, and other controllers and HDMI mirroring so playing on the big screen like you would any other console game more than doable.

Those that are interested should, again, surely hit the break below to check out the video. Given that the Transformer Prime is supposedly 10 days away from being released, there is only a little bit of time before we can experience the gaming goodness that is Tegra 3. What about you guys? Is this something that is worth dropping a few hundred on a new Tegra 3 tablet for?

Big news for Android this morning, and perhaps a lesson in karma. Motorola has successfully sued Apple in Germany and thereby blazed the trail for a sales ban on all iOS devices for the entirety of Europe.

This is Motorola’s first win in two patent infringement cases brought up against Apple in April, and it grants them injunction against all infringing products including the iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, the original iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G. The iPhone 4S isn’t specifically mentioned but this is likely due to the filing being made in April.

The patent in the suit relates to core cellular technology and is described in the court document as “method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system”. So long as thee ruling is upheld, Apple has to either remove this technology from their devices or pay Motorola a hefty licensing fee, and they may even have to provide payment for past infringement.

Motorola Mobility is now in the prime position of deciding whether or not they will enforce this ban immediately. Apple will of course appeal, but Moto can proceed with injunction right now if they so choose. A $134 million bond is all that stands in their way, in case the verdict is overturned in appeal. Apple wanted the bond set at whopping $2.7 billion, citing the massive losses they would take, but the judge sided with Motorola.

The Holiday season is treating Samsung good this year as they just scored a second major victory over Apple. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will go back on sale in Australia thanks to a decision by an Australian court lifting the 4 month ban.

Apple has accused Samsung of “slavishly” ripping off its designs, and the two giants have been involved in a bitter battle that has visited 10 countries.

Last week, Samsung had another major victory when a U.S. court denied Apple a preliminary injunction blocking the Tab 10.1 in the U.S. Even with this early success, Samsung still set aside $200 million for legal battles thanks to Apple. Of course, this will end up stifling innovation and cost the consumer.

Recently, Samsung has taken this battle outside the courtrooms with a marketing campaign mocking iPhone fanboys and fangirls.

The war is far from over, but it’s refreshing to see Samsung winning a few.

Samsung continues to mock iPhone fans waiting in line for what they think is the “Next Big Thing.” This one is all about multimedia and how the Apple fanboys and fangirls are waiting for 36 hours to keep their music and movies.